U.S. Now Targeting Mexican Drug Lord's Family, Too

If there's one rule to running the mob, it's to keep your family close. For Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the cocaine kingpin of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel, he's kept his family so close to the business that it's attracted the attention of the U.S. government.

On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department added two top-level Sinaloa Cartel lieutenants to its list of designated foreign narcotics traffickers. According to the department, the lieutenants include Guzman's father-in-law, Ines Coronel. The other is El Chapo's right-hand-man, Damaso Lopez, who is also rumored to have family in the drug trade. And what a family: Among Lopez's kin include an ex-politician, a brother alleged to work moving narcotics, and a purported young narco celebrity who's also El Chapo's godson.

But first, the U.S. rule, called the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, freezes whatever assets either of the two lieutenants may have inside the United States, and makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to do business with the pair. Doing so can cost you up to $5 million in penalties – double the penalty for corporations – and up to 30 years in prison. Guzman himself has been on the list since 2001. And it's not like El Chapo can run the business all by himself. He's the CEO and chairman of what's arguably the world's largest criminal organization, which counts thousands of traffickers and gunmen among its ranks. He's Mexico's most wanted man, and is believed to be in charge of half of all drug smuggling across the Mexican border.

Doing business with any of these individuals from the Sinaloa Cartel could land you in prison for 30 years. Illustration: Department of Treasury

Doing business with any of these individuals could land you in prison for 30 years. Illustration: Department of Treasury

The department isn't very specific on what either of El Chapo's deputies allegedly did. But Damaso Lopez has "become one of the top lieutenants of the Sinaloa Cartel," Treasury spokesman John Sullivan tells Danger Room.

Lopez is a relatively obscure figure, which makes the U.S. designation notable by elevating him as one of the cartel's top suspected capos. He's known by nickname "El Licenciado" or "The Bachelor" (more accurately: a Spanish honorific meaning Bachelor of Arts degree) and the U.S. government believes he helped El Chapo break out of a maximum-security prison in 2001. Mexican newspaper Milenio even reported that Lopez was working in the prison at the time as the deputy director. El Chapo has been free since.

The deputy also had ties to politics. Lopez's late father, according to newspaper El Universal, was an elected public trustee in the town of El Dorado in Sinaloa, the state where the cartel is based and takes its name. According to press reports, both Lopez and his brother, Adolfo, had popped up on Mexican military intelligence reports as far back as 2006. And Lopez is even rumored to have a son in the game. This isn't confirmed, but "narco blogs," which have partially filled the void left by the retreat of traditional Mexican media coverage involving the cartels, have speculated that a young gangster nicknamed "El Mini Lic" is Lopez's purported son – and El Chapo's godson.

After Lopez, the next guy on the list is Ines Coronel, who the U.S. claims is El Chapo's father-in-law and is allegedly responsible for playing a key role in the kingpin's "narcotics trafficking activities," Sullivan says. Coronel's daughter, beauty queen Emma Coronel, is married to El Chapo and attracted notice in August 2011 after slipping across the border into Los Angeles to give birth to twins. (She's a U.S. citizen.) Notably, she left the father's name blank on the birth certificate, and was allowed to return to Mexico given the absence of charges against her.

Finally, it's worth noting how dangerous the mob life can be. Emma's uncle, Ignacio, was killed by the Mexican army in 2010. And in last November, another beauty queen was killed while reportedly being used as a human shield by Sinaloa Cartel gunmen during a shootout with the Mexican military. Afterwards, the military turned up an AK-47 at the scene linked to the botched Operation Fast and Furious gun-walking plan. That aside, it's a stark reminder how there's always risks when bringing your family into the business.

Correction: A reader pointed out a translation error in Lopez's nickname. "El Licenciado" more precisely refers to someone with a Bachelor of Arts degree, not an unmarried person, and is used as an honorific title in business. It might also more accurately translate to "The Graduate."